Happy New Year! Here is a list of some of my favorite reads of 2011. This was a banner year for fantastic books, both fiction & non-fiction and it was VERY difficult winnowing down the list to what I’ve included here. I set a goal to read 150 books this year and got through 124, very few of them that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy, here are my top 21 favorites of 2011, in no particular order:

“Rules of Civility” Amor Towles

“The Borrower” Rebecca Makkai

“The Grace That Keeps the World” (published 2005) Tom Bailey

“Nightwoods” Charles Frazier

“The Flight of Gemma Hardy” Margot Livesey

“The Night Circus” Erin Morgenstern

“The Cat’s Table” Michael Ondaatje

“Remembering the Music, Forgetting the Words” Kate Whouley

“The Technologists” Matthew Pearl

“Among the Beautiful” Stacy Carlson

“The Dovekeepers” Alice Hoffman

“The Leftovers” Tom Perrotta

“The Sweet Life in Paris” David Lebovitz

“Miss Timmins’ School for Girls” Nayana Currimbhoy

“Maine” J. Courtney Smith

“The Most Beautiful Walk in the World” John Baxter

“Started Early, Took My Dog” Kate Atkinson

“Caleb’s Crossing” Geraldine Brooks

“The Call” Yannick Murphy

“The Summer of the Bear” Bella Pollen

“Say Her Name” Francisco Goldman

I would love to hear comments from any or all of you, what were your favorite books of 2011? Did you read any of the books I listed here and what did you think of them?